Lawsuit: Paso Robles bank teller pistol-whipped in robbery was laid off after comp claim
A former Paso Robles bank teller who was pistol-whipped during a violent robbery in 2018 alleges Chase Bank laid him off after he filed a worker’s compensation claim over the incident.
Attorneys for Hugo Cornejo, a teller who was seriously injured during the brazen November 2018 armed robbery at the Chase Bank location on Niblick Road, filed a lawsuit in San Luis Obispo Superior Court on Friday, alleging employment discrimination and wrongful termination.
Lawsuits represent just one side of the story. Attorneys for JP Morgan Chase have not yet filed a response in court and a company spokesman declined to comment Monday.
Cornejo’s attorney also did not respond to a request for comment Monday morning.
Paso Robles bank robbery
Paso Robles police said five masked gunmen took over the bank during closing operations on Nov. 20, 2018.
According to police, five men wearing black clothing and masks and carrying handguns and a rifle demanded cash and escaped within minutes in heavy rush-hour traffic.
Police said that one employee was struck during the crime, and that employee was transported to the hospital for treatment of an eye injury, police said.
Police said that after dispatchers received a 911 call reporting the robbery, a California Highway Patrol helicopter and San Luis Obispo County Probation Department officers arrived within four minutes — but the suspects were gone by then.
CHP officers located a suspect vehicle later that night traveling northbound at about 100 mph on Highway 101 near King City.
Officers conducted a traffic stop, and arrested three men from Soledad and Greenfield, who Paso Robles police said matched the descriptions of the suspected bank robbers.
An undisclosed amount of money taken from the bank was not immediately recovered, police said.
The three Monterey County men were arrested and booked into the San Luis Obispo County Jail but released within a week after the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office said it could not file charges with the evidence it had at the time.
Court records do not show that the three men were ever charged in San Luis Obispo Superior Court. And it was unclear Monday whether any more arrests were made related to the incident.
However, assistant district attorney Eric Dobroth said the FBI, Paso Robles Police Department and District Attorney’s Office were still reviewing a “substantial” amount of evidence involved in the case.
Teller injured in robbery files lawsuit after being laid off
Cornejo, the teller, says in his lawsuit that he was “assaulted, threatened, and pistol-whipped on his face by one of the armed robbers, causing (him) grave physical, mental, and emotional injuries.” He says that he was treated in the trauma center of Twin Cities Community Hospital in Templeton for “serious injuries to his face, nose, mouth, eyes, and head.”
After the robbery, the lawsuit says, Cornejo’s physicians placed him on on temporary disability to treat his injuries, and he filed a worker’s compensation benefits claim in January 2019.
In March 2019, he received a letter from JP Morgan Chase’s human resources department informing him that his employment was terminated.
Claiming he was retaliated against for seeking the compensation and “reasonable accomodations” for his disability, Cornejo filed a complaint with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing in March 2020, and was issued a “right to sue” notice by the agency.
Cornejo is seeking an unspecified amount of damages for loss of past and future wages and benefits, general damages for injuries and emotional distress, and for court and attorneys fees.
A case management conference has been scheduled for April 2021 in San Luis Obispo Superior Court.
